


Triptych Part 2: Setting Up

by Storyteller1358



Series: Triptych [2]
Category: The Fosters (TV 2013)
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 2, Gen, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2019-03-22 23:50:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13775226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Storyteller1358/pseuds/Storyteller1358
Summary: Callie and Mariana catch up while setting up Callie's exhibit.





	Triptych Part 2: Setting Up

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MercyBuckets](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercyBuckets/gifts).



“A bit to the left,” Callie called out as Mariana hung a portrait of an old woman, grey curls piled on top of her head, a pencil tucked behind her ear.  “It’ll be too close to the next one, otherwise.”

“Here?” Mariana asked.

“Perfect.”  As Mariana attached the portrait to the wall, Callie turned to the one in her own hands.  It was of a young woman in the back of a lecture hall, a baby asleep on her shoulder as she took notes. 

Callie had kept the exhibit from everyone in her family, but Mariana had come early for Callie’s graduation since NYU finished for the summer a week before Washington University.  She insisted that they hadn’t had enough sister time lately, and Callie agreed.  She missed her whole family, but she was surprised to find how much she particularly missed Mariana after sharing a room with the girl for a few years.  Once Mariana was there, there was really no way that Callie could keep the exhibit a secret from Mariana, and truthfully, she didn’t want to.  It was fun to have someone in on the secret, and to know just how proud of her Mariana was.

Mariana insisted on helping her set it up, although she had no real sense of what she was doing.  She followed Callie’s directions and double checked the placement of each portrait with her before she affixed it to the wall.  They talked while they worked, catching up on the last few weeks.  With finals, their usual several times a week phone calls, and frequent texts had been interrupted.

“How’s Michael?”  Callie asked, attaching the paper bearing the title and description of the portrait just beneath it. 

“Still infuriating,” Mariana told her.  “He acts like he’s interested, but whenever I try to see if he wants to get coffee or dinner, he’s always busy.”

Callie continues to question Mariana as they hang the rest of the pictures and the sun slowly sinks below the horizon.  The room only has a tiny window in the door, so the change in light isn’t really noticeable.  Hours pass as they work, carefully placing each portrait, giggling and chatting, then working in long periods of comfortable silence, both just happy to be together again.  It is late evening by the time Callie puts the label on the final portrait.

When they are finished, the only bit of the room not carefully arranged with Callie’s portraits of her fellow students is a small alcove. It stands stark and white against the rest of the room.  No portraits, no little descriptions.  There is nothing at all in that part of the room.

“Do you have any more pictures?” Mariana asked Callie.  “Or should we rearrange them?  That whole bit is empty.”

“Oh, I must have forgotten them,” Callie said.  “I’ll come back and put them up later.  You’ve done enough.  You really didn’t have to do any of this.”

“Of course I had to!”  Mariana responded, vaguely disgruntled.  “What else are sisters for?”

 “Reminding me to eat, maybe?” Callie replied as her stomach growled.  “What do you say we go get some dinner?”  Arms linked together they walked out of the room, giggling and arguing over whether to get burgers or pizza.

 


End file.
